Slotted letter box plate and cover therefor



May 6, 1952 s. NOWAKOWSKI SLOTTED LETTER BOX PLATE AND COVER THEREFOR Filed May 1'7, 1948 Patented May 6, 1952 SLOTTED LETTER BOX PLATE AND COVER THEREFOR Stanley Nowakowski, Meriden, Conn., assignor to The H. B. Ives Company, New Haven, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application May 17, 1948, Serial No. 27,401

This invention relates to letter-box plates, and more particularly to a slotted plate having a hinged cover adapted to be applied to a door or the like to cover a mail slot provided in the door.

It is not unusual for mail slots to be provided in outside doors of buildings, and, when so provided, they are, of course, exposed to the weather, and it is desirable to make them weatherproof. Some difficulty has been encountered in the past in that rain or snow is apt to seep in, particularly around the edges of the hinged cover, it being difficult to provide a simple and relatively inexpensive structure which is, at the same time, leakproof.

I contemplate by the present invention the provision of a slotted letter-box plate having anopening therein and a hinged cover normally urged to a closed position to cover this opening. The main portion of the body of this cover lies upon one side of the plate and overlaps slightly the edges of the slot in the plate, while the upper portion of the cover projects through the slot at the rear thereof so as to be hinged at the rear of the plate where the hinges will be concealed. Such a construction is usually weatherproof except at the top where the portion of the hinged cover adjacent the upper edge projects through the slot to the rear thereof, and rain or snow is apt to seep in between the cover and the plate at this point. i

In order to prevent the leakage along the upper edge of the cover, I provide the plate itself with a rearwardly projecting flange,,and provide the cover with a curved lip which extends along the upper edge of the cover and is channel shaped in cross section so that it will embrace the rearwardly extending flange, and the upper edge of this lip will engage against the rear face of the plate and thus prevent the entrance of rain or snow.

One object of the present invention is to provide a slotted letter-box plate of improved form and of simple construction.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved slotted letter-box plate having a hinged cover, the cover and plate being so constructed as to inhibit the leaking of rain or snow therethrough when the plate is mounted in an exposed position.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a slotted letter-box plate having a hinged cover, the principal part of which lies upon one side of the slot but which projects rearwardly through the slotin its upper edge to be hinged to the rear side of the plate, this upper edge 1 Claim. (Cl. 232-45) being provided with a channel-shaped lip designed to engage a flange at the rear of the plate and to impinge against the rear face of the plate so as to provide a substantially weatherproof joint at this point.

To these and other ends the invention consists in the novel features. and combinations of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of a letter-box plate embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a rear elevational view thereof; and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 33 of Fig. 2.

To illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention, I have shown in the drawings a portion of a door or other structure i0 having my improved letter-box plate secured to the outer face thereof. This structure includes a plate ll of substantially rectangular form, this plate being provided with a rectangular opening or slot l2 through which letters or other mail matter may be inserted. As shown in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings, the plate may be slightly dished so as to provide a peripheral flange l3, thus spacing the main body of the plate from the surface to which it is attached, and also a rearwardly extending flange I4 is provided at the upper end of the slot 12. As shown, a similar flange is provided at each of the four edges of the slot. The plate may be secured in place by means of screws or similar fastening members l5 designed to be inserted through openings provided in the plate for this purpose.

A cover [6 is provided, which cover will normally close the slot I2, but which, as will be hereinafter explained, is hinged so as to swing to open position, as shown, for example, in dotted lines in Fig. 3. The main portion of this cover lies on the outer side of the plate II, and the lower edge of the cover and the side edges for a considerable portion thereof overlap the plate I l around the edges of the opening l2, as shown, for example, at ll. Also, as will be seen more especially from Fig. 3, the cover may be provided with a rearwardly projecting flange ll which contacts the plate ll below the slot [2, and this A flange also extends up the side edges I! of the cover where they overlap the edges of the plate.

Adjacent the upper portion of the cover, the width of the latter is slightly reduced, as shown at 18, so that it may pass rearwardly through the slot l2 to the rear side of the plate I I. Upon the rear side of the plate, this portion of the cover is provided with ears [9 having openings therein which register with openings upon cor- 3 responding ears 2!] projecting rearwardly from the rear face of the plate H. A hinge pin 2| is passed through the ears l9 and 20 to pivotally or hingedly connect the cover with the plate, and the ends of this pin may be upset slightly at 23 to hold it in place.

As shown more especially in Figs. 2 and 3, the cover is provided at its upper edge and at the rear side of the plate II with a curved or channelshaped lip 22 which extends entirely along the upper edge of the cover in position to embrace the flange I4, and this lip abuts the rear face of the plate I I when the cover is in closed position.

As will be seen from Fig. 3, for example, the lip 22, together with the flange M, will effectively prevent rain or snow driving through the upper edge of the slot in the plate below the flange 14. Any moisture which might be driven into the recess formed by the lip 22 will tend to drain downwardly over the outside of the cover, and will be prevented from passing upwardly about the flange, and between the extreme edge of the lip 22 and the rear face of the plate, which it would have to do to enter the slot in the door.

The cover is normally held in closed position, which is the full-line position shown in Fig. 3, by means of a spring 29, one end of this spring, as shown at 25, bearing against the rear side of the plate and the other end 26 acting against the lip 22 so as to'firmly hold this lip against the rear face of the plate.

It will also be noted that because of the construction of the main plate and cover, objectional drafts will be prevented from entering through the slot, which is particularly advantageous in cold weather toprevent loss of heat from this cause.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood 4 that it is not to be limited to all of the details shown, but is capable of modification and variation within the spirit of the invention and within the scope of the claim.

What I claim is:

A plate for letter boxes or the like, said plate being provided with a mail slot therein, a. cover for said slot, the greater part of said cover being disposed at the front of the plate, and a portion of the cover along its upper edge extending rearwardly through the slot to the rear of the plate, means at the side edges of the slot hinging said cover to the plate at the rear of the plate and below the upper edge of the cover, said plate being provided with a rearwardly extending flange at its rear face along the upper edge of the slot, the upper edge portion of the cover being provided with a lip of arcuate shape in cross section above said hinge means, said lip embracing said flange, and the edge of the lip being in close proximity to the rear face of the plate when the cover is closed, a spring at the rear face of the plate acting against said lip to urge the cover to closed position, and said cover overlapping the edges of the opening in the plate along its bottom edge and also along the greater part of its side edges at the front of the plate.

STANLEY NOWAKOWSKI.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 7 06,843 Moore Aug. 12, 1902 1,065,078 Phipps June 1'7, 1913 1,527,223 Rastetter Feb. 24, 1925 1,794,069 Foss Feb. 24, 1931 2,370,682 Overmyer Mar. 6, 1945 

